“Aren’t you worried what might have happened to them?”
“What’s the point in worrying? If they’re very lucky, they’ll survive. If not…Girls are born to suffer. It’s too bad they’re not boys.”

Xinran is a Chinese journalist who has compilied the stories of Chinese women who have had to give up or abandon their daughters because of political, economic, or social and cultural reasons. The women’s stories may have varying circumstances but the overwhelming pain permeates each story. Due in part to the one-child policy, economic hardships, and the desire to have a male heir to carry on the family name and spiritual duties, many women are forced to abandon or kill their daughters. What I could appreciate most about these stories is that Xinran invites the reader to get a better understanding of the many forces at work behind these heartrenching decisions. Xinran at times marvels over her lack of understanding and naiveness of the many cultures and ideas that exist in the country where she grew up. We see that these mothers are not heartless and cruel but are operating under tense and mostly inflexible constructions. These women range from students to the richest and the poorest, they are educated, they are all of us. There are even families who try to evade the authorities by travelling constantly so that they can keep their girls. These “extra-birth guerilla troops” risk everything to keep their families together. The women Xinran writes about greive for their lost daughters but know that they must not bring shame to the family or disobey the policies. It’s very hard to do this book or an explanation of the culture any justice, but just know that reading it will bring about a new understanding that you would never get from Western media.

There is a scene in the one of the stories that remains with me. An orphanage worker remembers the babies that are brought to the steps of the building. Some of them have a small X on their pinky, some have their familiy history and stories or poems and words of love written on their clothes, some mothers have embroidered elaborate pictures on their clothing. It as if the mothers hope to be reunited one day or to at least have the baby know where they come from and and that hey were loved once they are old enough.

The collection of stories as told to Xinran by the women themselves, serves a few purposes. They are to help Chinese children who have been adopted to understand the circumstances their mothers may have faced in giving them up, they are to help adoptive families to obtain a bit of information about their children’s familial culture, they are to help Westerners and outside cultures to understand how social structures and economic and political climate influence the actions of a country. These stories also serve as a place of healing for the author herself, who was not adopted as a child but says she barely knew her parents (because of their involvement and circumstances related to the communist party at the time) and still feels the strains from what she sees as a lack of love and displays of affection. Xinran also recounts the story of fostering an abandoned baby girl, whom she had to give up to adhere to the one-child policy.

These stories were amazing on so many levels. I think I can safely say that all of us at bookclub have had our eyes and hearts opened, we’ve had our ideas and convictions changed a bit.

As we said good-bye, Mary said to me: Print what I said, please, so those little girls can read it and will never forget their Chinese mothers.”

I saw this in 60 Quick Baby Knits and had to make it. How can you not love this cute little sheep. Luckily I have a co-worker who just had a baby. Cutest gift ever!

This was a very quick knit and the yarn (Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted) was lovely. Very soft and squishy. It starts with the grass and works through the body. Next I made the face, ears, and tail. I sewed those on and added eyes using a bit of leftover black yarn. I think I want one for myself!

I visited DC twice this summer to spend time with a friend and to see Sade in concert. My fondness grows each time.

This summer I learned to ride the metro alone. I felt very proud of this fact. I even got so good at it that I started to bring along my knitting…

I sampled a few food trucks…

And visited museum after museum. This photo was taken in the National Museum of the American Indian.

I even headed out to the grand opening of the American Girl store. Yes, I reclaimed my inner child and wandered around with other children looking at dolls and their accessories. I’ve had my Addy doll since 1995 and that day she got new dresses. (And she’s very excited about it)

The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow – Mrs Oliphant
This binding includes two novellas, both quite good. The first novella is about Mrs Blencarrow who is believed to be concealing something. A particular neighbor just can not believe that she is so good as to have to blemishes on her social record, even after the death of husband. To hear the neighbor tell it Mrs Blencarrow is high and mighty and needs to be exposed. Of course Mrs Blencarrow does have something to hide. The second novella Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond is darker. Mrs Lycett-Landon has found out that her husband has married someone else and is living two lives.
Both stories written in the late 1800s are not all what you would expect of the times, in a good way.

The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
This is a lovely and warm story about four women who do not know each but who rent an Italian villa together in the 1920s. They are each viewing the vacation in different ways and each woman has a different reason for going. Amid blooming flowers and the enchantment of their new surroundings each woman finds a bit of happiness that had previously escaped them. This does sound exceptionally mushy and idyllic, but that’s okay. There is also a film which I’ve seen and it is just as nice as the book. I’ll be coming back to this one, perhaps in April when classes are winding down and the entire summer is stretched out before me.

The Virago Book of Christmas

From my Virago Secret Santa (rainpebble) two years ago, I read this last Christmas. I often chuckled to myself thinking that anyone who saw me reading this around Christmastime would think I was full of Christmas cheer and tinsel and lights. That is until they saw the hilarious cover, alas no one asked me about it. So I’ll tell about it now. These are short pieces, essays, poems, excerpts from various women about the Christmas season. Some are deeply moving about the miracle of Christ while others lament family gatherings and traditions. I read it over the entire season and there was always something new to discover. I get a kick out of the back cover description so I will copy it here

Christmas began with a good but harassed woman giving birth in difficult domestic circumstances. Somewhere between then and now, the circumstances have changed, but for women today, Christmas is still a time of joys garnered against the odds. We have moved on from stables and mangers to supermarkets and microwaves; palm fronds and shepherds have given way to a spangled conifer and a fat man in a red suit. In this anthology, reflecting the experiences of more than 50 women at Christmas, Ntozake Shange and Agatha Christie rub shoulders with Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf. Curl up with a tantalizing volume that gives full reign to the seditious humor, peculiar discomforts, and exquisite social tortures of the season.

These are selections that I received as part of LibrayThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self – Danielle Evans
The stories in this collection were great. They are mostly about adolescence and finding ones place and voice. Many of the stories are about young girls and range from family issues, making choices, to love and self-healing. I enjoyed the variety of topics covered and the characters. They are well thought out and very true to life. I hope Evans continues to write.

Fannie’s Last Supper: Re-creating One Amazing Meal from Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Cookbook – Christopher KimballFannie’s Last Supper is part travelogue (especially if you’ve visited or plan to visit Boston), part epicurean history, and part cookery book. The descriptions of Fannie’s Boston and Victorian curiosity provide background for the modern meal Kimball is recreating. Many of Fannie’s original recipes are modified to pull off the meal.

Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life – Stephanie Staal
This is one woman’s experience in an intro to feminism course. Staal gives us just enough background on the texts and the main points for the reader to follow along. We follow her as she returns to her alma mater and enrolls in a feminist texts course. What is most interesting and the main idea of the book is the dynamic that she navigates. She discovers her dual selves-both mother and working woman. Her writing is accessible and I could really appreciate her experience. If you are looking for a more in depth reading of feminists texts I’d check elsewhere.

The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell
A wonderful book containing two stories that seem to be unrelated, but all along we somehow know that they have to be related. Lexie is just starting her career in the 60s in London. Elina has just had a baby but somehow can’t remember exactly having the baby. She and her husband Ted are coping with being new parents, but also Ted’s lack of memory about his childhood.

Village School – Miss Read
Set in the 1950s, through the eyes of the headmistress of the school, this is the first installment in the Miss Read series. I’d been wanting to get to know the characters in this English village for some time. Generally these are the daily happenings of the village and it’s people, a soothing read.

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

I don’t think there is much left to say about this blockbuster and I will spare anymore summarizing. When I read it a while ago it was wildly popular. I don’t remember talk of a movie but everyone seemed to love it. I did too! I still struggle with it though. On one hand the story is nicely written, the characters are rich and lovable both for their personalities and because of the amazing feat they take on. But I couldn’t help but think that it was too clean and too safe regarding social and racial tensions. I kept waiting for Stockett to take a leap into the horrors that so many experienced at this time. Even so, this book is accessible to a wide audience and that may have been the point. I’m planning on seeing the film as I love love love Viola Davis’ work. I think I even imagined her in this story…though I may be imagining that now!

The Island Beneath The Sea – Isabel Allende
I wish it hadn’t been so long since I read this. The details are fuzzy now though I remember really enjoying this story. I always find that Allende’s stories are sweeping and lushly descriptive. The Island Beneath the Sea tells the story of Zarite, a slave born on the island of Saint-Domingue which after the revolution became Haiti. Like many other slave narratives I have read, Zarite becomes a force and is instrumental in the survival of her master’s family.

Sharp Teeth – Toby Barlow

This was an interesting one. Barlow tells the story of various packs of wolves living in LA.They are able to transform from human to wolf depending on their needs at the time. The groups are fighting, the story is intense, gritty, and written in verse. Yes, that’s right, verse. But there is no rhyming. It’s amazing how much detail Barlow is able to get in such few words. There were a lot of different wolves/people to keep up with. There is also a lot of social commentary.